A Victory and a Challenge

The last few weeks has seen a great triumph for the business community and Tompkins County. After a stunning blow to our community—the announcement that Continental Airlines would be discontinuing service to and from the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH)—Senator Schumer came to the airport to reveal that Continental would be staying. The business community, led by the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, the Air Service Board, and Tompkins County Area Development, rallied quickly and called Senator Schumer to ask for help. Senator Schumer responded to our calls and spent considerable time and effort to bring Continental to the table to listen to the business suggestions and analysis that a group of business leaders proposed. The result is slightly reduction in the number of flights and a challenge to our community to use the service or to risk losing it.

Senator Schumer also brought to us more information about the problems at Newark International. We knew that air traffic congestion was forcing Continental to reduce flights. But Senator Schumer was familiar with problems in the FAA and management at Newark that helped us make our case with officials at Continental.

In the last seven months with three airlines operating from ITH we’ve seen great service. You can now reach more than 200 destinations world-wide with one-stop service. Prices have been amazing. I recently flew round-trip to Roanoke on a Continental-Northwest code-share for $180 round trip and just purchased a round-trip ticket to Raleigh for $210 roundtrip. Our airport works efficiently and well with this level of service.

But, if the people of Tompkins County don’t use our airport, we will lose air service. The airlines need to use their aircraft efficiently and they simply won’t continue half-empty flights. I urge you to register at www.flyithaca.com and use it to book your air travel. Costs are absolutely competitive, service is excellent, and you’ll avoid long-lines and the hassle of driving one, two or more hours to get on a flight. So don’t take this victory for granted. You have great choice now, but it could be our last chance.